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Shatner is making an album with 35 metal icons

90 points

by mhb

2 hours ago

| past

| 17 comments

| guitarworld.com

| HN

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jsheard

1 hour ago

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If I had a nickel for each actor who recorded a heavy metal album after their 90th birthday then I'd have two nickels, which isn't much but it's weird that it's happened twice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlemagne:_The_Omens_of_Deat...

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ziofill

16 minutes ago

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Oh wow he looks incredible for being 94

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defrost

1 hour ago

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Impressive.

The great Orsen Welles spring chickened out by only recording heavy metal tracks when he was 70. His excuse for not repeating that at 90 was dying not long after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AMi-vCfAWw

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ryandrake

36 minutes ago

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No mention of Shatner's music career is complete without listing Spaced Out: The Best of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner[1]. And, yes, it's exactly as -unique- as you'd imagine it might be.

1: https://www.amazon.com/Spaced-Out-Leonard-William-Shatner/dp...

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jimberlage

1 hour ago

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William Shatner has the most experimental, wild Spotify I've ever seen. If you haven't ever seen it, look at his discography. He does a lot of almost spoken-word poetry over soft rock, punk, etc. You get the sense that he views acting as his side hustle and is waiting for his musical career to take off.

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vunderba

47 minutes ago

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He's also (to my knowledge) one of the only major Hollywood actors to ever star in a movie filmed entirely in esperanto. I've heard that the pronunciation is rather rough around the edges though I have no way of corroborating that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incubus_(1966_film)

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etrautmann

15 minutes ago

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At one point he was huge into the paintball scene as well. Beyond hobby level

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amiga386

1 hour ago

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I'm amazed the guy is still ticking at all. He's 94! Seems he's also still driving... and eating his breakfast at traffic lights: https://www.tmz.com/2026/01/20/william-shatner-eating-cereal...

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2muchcoffeeman

1 hour ago

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Only in earth’s frame of reference. He spent a long time at warp. So he’s really only 65

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LeoPanthera

1 hour ago

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The breakfast cereal thing was a commercial. A successful one, apparently.

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dole

16 minutes ago

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I honestly couldn’t stop thinking about it. People around here eat plates of pasta in cars and throw them out the window.

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this-is-why

1 hour ago

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If you’ve never heard it, his duet of the song Common People is pretty awesome:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMXhWf0vE7c

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magicalhippo

1 hour ago

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He did an interesting cover[1] of Elton John's Rocket Man[2] back in 78.

That cover was later remixed into this[3] piece of internet gold (IMHO).

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wI4jMxveyI

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_QZe8Z66x8

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IffZh3V8oQ

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sho_hn

56 minutes ago

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And Shatner's cover was covered by Family Guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZL4pNtI9nM

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linsomniac

1 hour ago

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Agreed, it fits well within his range and it's IMHO a really great cover of Common People.

I also really enjoy _That's Me Trying_: https://youtu.be/vjGaqFrF5Fw?si=eq_VSQXnxqXQ_Kyg

and _Real_: https://youtu.be/hsKfZ3wvLkE?si=l7FdbGCX_u8ep0Ie

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davidw

1 hour ago

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Mr Tambourine Man is pretty epic too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmCi_-9Shhg&list=RDXmCi_-9Sh...

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DHolzer

5 minutes ago

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I have to say, the brass arrangement is pretty good - would have loved to be there when they recorded that staccato part.

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crtasm

1 hour ago

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and only improved by adding the Star Trek cartoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXWEM4gZhg4

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BLKNSLVR

13 minutes ago

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I can't get behind this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAWP9Oxdn9Q

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WalterBright

1 hour ago

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Shatner ... knows ... how to ... have fun ... in his 90s!

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johngossman

1 hour ago

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As I age, I look on these happy, productive seniors, people like Dick Van Dyke (100), David Attenborough (99), and Mel Brooks (99) and keep my fingers crossed.

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phasetransition

32 minutes ago

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Brooks was a combat engineer at the Battle of the Bulge! That always blows me away. What a life's journey.

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ThrowawayR2

1 hour ago

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And more power to him; he's enjoying himself and that's all that matters. We should all be so fortunate.

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webprofusion

1 hour ago

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It's Rad. It doesn't even have to be good, it just has to exist.

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webprofusion

1 hour ago

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I'm guessing the music will be much like this one (more about fun than having the best actual songs) but didn't know there was a track with both Chris Poland and Marty Friedman: https://open.spotify.com/track/7yDb6NVzvuUVuvLyTSfDhz?si=0c5...

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saas_startup

1 hour ago

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Captain Kirk is climbing a mountain, why is he climbing a mountain ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU2ftCitvyQ

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block_dagger

1 hour ago

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The album he made with Ben Folds was worth a couple of listens. Only a couple.

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protocolture

1 hour ago

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Still waiting for his spoken word, rnb, julius caesar.

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jrootabega

1 hour ago

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Guess the Beastie Boys were never in the running.

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Avicebron

1 hour ago

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It's Shatner, he can score anything.

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DoneWithAllThat

1 hour ago

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His 2004 album “Has Been” is surprisingly good.

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pdpi

1 hour ago

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I would never have expected that "Shatner and Henry Rollins ranting while Adrian Belew and Matt Chamberlain go absolutely wild on guitar and drums respectively" would be anywhere close to as good as it is.

Incidentally, Rollins talking about the recording[0] of it is freaking hilarious.

[0]: https://youtu.be/8zL3wtNrq00?t=4616

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SilentM68

1 hour ago

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Don't know if true or not but I saw somewhere on the web that he is also in talks to return to Star Trek.

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ThrowawayR2

59 minutes ago

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I recall that he consulted for an unofficial (semi-official?) concept video by the Roddenberry Archive that was a finale/sendoff for Captain Kirk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgOZFny7F50 . If you're a fan of TOS, it's worth a watch.

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excalibur

49 minutes ago

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If you haven't heard his Bohemian Rhapsody cover, it's something else. He flat out admitted that he had never heard the song before recording it. Which... Number one, how? And number two, who let him do that?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul6S84qF_TU

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afavour

1 hour ago

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Sometimes I’m absolutely mystified by the items that appear at the top of HN.

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johngossman

1 hour ago

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That's not a bug, that's a feature

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